Antique Patinated Bronze Old Bill Car Mascot - Bruce Bairnsfather

Authenticated by Fieldings Auctioneers of Stourbridge after being consigned to auction by the Grandson of Robert Dudley Best as the original pattern used for the manufacture of the Old Bill car mascot.

Robert Dudley Best was the Grandson of the founder of Best & Lloyd of Hockley, Birmingham who sold their patents and designs for the automotive industry side of their business in 1935. This is an early 20th Century patinated bronze car mascot of Old Bill, the World War One Tommy, cast with poised helmet , bold moustache and knotted scarf around his neck. The helmet is signed Bruce Bairnsfather.

This was owned by Robert Dudley Best. The copyright for these mascots was T.Rd.669204 circa 1930 Charles Bruce Bairnsfather (1887 - 1959) was a prominent British humorist and cartoonist. His best-known cartoon character is Old Bill. Bill and his pals Bert and Alf featured in Bairnsfather' weekly ‘Fragments from France’ cartoons published weekly in "The Bystander" magazine during the First World War. In 1914 he joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment as a second lieutenant and served with a machine gun unit in France until 1915, when he was hospitalised with shellshock and hearing damage sustained during the Second Battle of Ypres. Posted to the 34th Division headquarters on Salisbury Plain, he developed his humorous series for the Bystander about life in the trenches, featuring "Old Bill", a curmudgeonly soldier with trademark walrus moustache and balaclava.

Dimensions... Height 12cm Width 6.5cm

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